Reprocessing Nuclear Fuel is the
Way to Make Yucca Mountain Work for Everyone

DATE: May 8, 2002

BACKGROUND: The Associated Press reported on May 8,
2002 on the alleged inadequacies of Yucca mountain as a repository
for spent nuclear fuel. In the report, the notion of reprocessing
fuel to reduce storage needs was discussed but it said, "the
U.S. remains opposed to reprocessing [of nuclear waste] because
of nuclear proliferation concerns" AP added a statement by
Energy Undersecretary Robert Card who said, "The administration
is on record as being willing to reopen the reprocessing issue."

TEN SECOND RESPONSE: The administration is right to
consider reprocessing nuclear fuel, in addition to opening the
Yucca Mountain repository. New technology can reprocess fuel without
the danger of proliferation.

THIRTY SECOND RESPONSE: Reprocessing nuclear fuel sent
to the Yucca Mountain repository will provide us with affordable,
abundant energy and change the storage requirements from vast
quantities to be locked away for thousands of years to smaller
quantities needing only a few hundred years of storage. New technology
such as the Integral Fast Reactor and pyroreprocessing make all
this possible with absolutely no danger of nuclear proliferation.

DISCUSSION: When work on the Integral Fast Reactor (IFR)
and pyroreprocessing was halted by former Energy Secretary, Hazel
O'Leary in 1994, on the groundless fear that it would create a
market in bomb-grade plutonium, Argonne National Laboratory was
just 2-3 years and $200-300 million dollars from completing the
research necessary to build full-scale reactor/reprocessors.

For information on the Integral Fast Reactor, which could change
Yucca Mountain from a long term repository to a shorter term,
temporary storage facility, read National Policy Analysis
#378, "Integral Fast Reactors: Source of Safe, Abundant,
Non-Polluting Power" by George S. Stanford, Ph.D. at http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA378.html.

by Tom Randall, Director
John P. McGovern, MD Center for Environmental and Regulatory Affairs
The National Center for Public Policy Research